Ex-journalist Kay and her family rent an idyllic Vermont farmhouse for the summer. But within weeks, Kay’s husband is called away on business and she finds herself alone with the children, increasingly obsessed by the idea that something terrible has happened to the owners of the house. The locals are reticent when she asks about their whereabouts, and she finds disturbing writing scrawled across one of the walls.
As she starts to investigate, she meets Ben, a local logger, whose life is complicated by his violent childhood and his involvement in a drug-trafficking operation. Their two stories collide and intertwine in a tense, intelligent literary thriller, which is also a considered exploration of personal violence.
